I love it when a plan comes together, especially if it’s someone else’s sweet Kickstarter plan. Dizzy legends the Oliver Twins have released this little gem of a game which arrived last week. The game arrived in its plastic casing and is signed on the front by Philip and Andrew Oliver.

The picture below shows Dreamworld Pogie unboxed! Including A3 poster, sweet manual, signed case and game cartridge, this was a great Kickstarter project brought to use by the awesome folks @Yolkfolk and the legendary @TheOliverTwins

In your best Gladys Knight >>> “Got a licence to kill, and you know I’m going straight for your heart”…

… or perhaps not, as you’ll see from the video my aim is terrible, broad sides of barns topple over in fits of laughter as I approach.

I’ve been playing some Bond games on the Amiga recently (The Spy Who Loved Me, Live and Let Die, Licence to Kill) and they pretty much all follow the same format each time, top down racing shooter, impossible controls, general terrible game play and hard as nails.

This one in particular wasn’t as much of a ball ache as the others, so that’s an instant thumbs up. I also enjoyed the Bond-esque theme and Timothy Dalton artwork at the start. Not much else to praise though.

In other news I wish Timothy Dalton had started his Bond career with A View to a Kill and then finished with GoldenEye. We definitely needed more Dalton as Bond.

So, this is an Atari 2600. I’m liking the wood veneer look and large number of switches at the top which I have no idea what they do, even though they’re labelled. Luckily for me it’s already set up and ready to play (over at Game Over) so no need to spend hours working out how to use it.

As this was my first time playing on one I thought I’d pick a small selection of games to play out of the huge selection available, most of the games I picked were ones I recognised, easing myself in gently. Below are a few thoughts on the games I played:

Asteroids (1981)

Asteroids is an awesome game, I spent the most time on this one. It was an epic battle of triangle versus misshapen balls. In which you’re the triangle (ship) firing dots at the misshapen balls (asteroids) to destroy them a piece at a time in order to score as many points as possible. There’s also the occasional flying saucer to take out as well if you’re fast enough.

Loved the colours and sound effects in this, that lovely “pew pew” sound always reminds me of these types of games. The game play kept me interested and the challenge level felt just right and there was that definite urge to carry on and beat my previous score. On that note I didn’t achieve any significant high scores but it’s definitely a new favourite for me and would go back to it any time on this system.

Joust (1983)

Joust is about jousting, on ostriches, collecting eggs from other ostriches who are also jousting… what could be better (or make more sense)! Whoever thought this one up must have been on another planet at the time, but I’m glad they were because it’s loads of fun. Running and flying about the screen you need to attack your enemy from above (seemed to be the safest way) and then collect the egg that appears once you’ve destroyed them.

The game play is superb but I found it a lot more challenging than Asteroids, each level varies in difficulty with the number of platforms and enemies blocking your way, the more there are the harder it is to manoeuvre into a good position. It took awhile to get used to the way your character moved (almost like they’re slipping on ice) and lining them up just right to take out the enemies.

Centipede (1982)

Centipede was the first game I played, loved it, possibly my favourite so far out of the selection I chose to play. The player is at the bottom of the screen firing up into a field of dashes, as the centipede works his way down the screen towards you, kind of like Space Invaders, but faster, and with just a single enemy heading towards you at mental speeds back and forth across the screen.

It had just the right amount of challenge mixed in with great game play and sound. It took me ages to realise you didn’t just have to sit on the bottom of the screen and that you could move up slightly too, saved me a lot of trouble and lives later on. Other enemies also attack you on the bottom of the screen, just to make it that little bit harder, they reminded me of Tektites from The Legend of Zelda.

ET (1982)

ET… I played this out of pure curiosity as I had watched a documentary about it called Atari: Game Over (2014), it was pretty interesting, and after hearing so much about the game and how bad it is I thought I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a quick go.

Now considering this was now the 4th game I’d ever played on the Atari 2600, I might have not realised how this type of game works, but the moving from screen to screen seemed pretty random, as was being chased by something that looked like an old-fashioned type explorer. I was constantly ‘falling down’ off the bottom of the screen into a pit? I seemed to end up in this pit more often than not.

It took me ages to figure out how to get out of the pit, only to fall back in again pretty much straight after. I was so pleased when I reached the blue screen/white house(?) area pictured above, it was so nice I stayed awhile, just hanging out, afraid to move really. Anyway, after a good 25 minutes wandering around I finally did something of note after falling into the pit again, I made a flower grow by extending my neck. It wasn’t a great experience, but it’s really the only thing I’m going to take away from this.

A few other games I played; Laser Blast (1981), not a bad little shooter, even though I was pretty terrible at it, I couldn’t get the hang of firing at angles. Frogger (1982), a classic in its own right but I was actually a little disappointed with this version, it kinda felt sluggish, and given its relative simplicity as a premise the controls didn’t seem to work very well for me. Donkey Kong (1982), great game, you could say it’s a ‘a barrel of laughs’, now, if only I could beat level one.

I very much enjoyed my first experience of playing on the Atari 2600, looking forward to going back and trying out some more games. Let me know what your favourites are in the comments below!

Final picture drawn and posted on twitter for Drawlloween, was a challenging year as the daily themes were pretty vague, and led to some pretty weird drawings.

Below you can take a look at the pictures I drew for the second half of the month, from the 17th “Mad Science Monday” to the 31st “Trick ‘R’ Treat”. Each picture has the date/number and the theme for that day.

From this second gallery I think my favourites have got to be the 19th “Witchcraft Wednesday”, 25th “Entombed Tuesday” and the 31st “Trick ‘R’ Treat”.

Hi all, another year another Drawlloween, managed to keep to a drawing (almost) everyday this year, been fitting it in where I can and played catch up only twice which was a nice surprise.

Below you can take a look at the pictures I drew for the first half of the month, from the 1st “Return of the Dead” to the 16th “Full Moon!”. Each picture has the date/number and the theme for that day.

From this first gallery I think my favourites have got to be the 4th “Tentacle Tuesday”, 11th “Foggy Bogs” (my weird sense of humour), and the 16th “Full Moon!”.

Trying out the age protection questions at the start of Leisure Suit Larry on the Amiga for laughs (or not). No game play this time, just a nostalgia trip.

Loading up this game for the first time when I was 10 was an event. I was completely baffled by the bright colours, cheesy music and the weird fella in the white suit chasing a blow up doll. Not that I had any idea what a blow up doll actually was. All I knew was that this was a puzzle adventure game, and I loved them.

The questions at the beginning to get into the game (to prove you were old enough to play) proved just as challenging as the game itself and the puzzles contained within. I have great memories of sitting for ages trying to get these right, occasionally asking my mum random questions to see if she knew any answers that could help me out, for example “who is Joan Collins?”, or “what’s a prophylactic?”.

Game Over (Portsmouth’s only video game cafe) is opening a new exhibition this weekend on the History of gaming at the Portsmouth City Museum, the exhibition will feature consoles spanning 40 years and have a number of playable consoles to try out.

In Chips Challenge you take on the role of Chip, our nerdy hero who is trying to impress Melinda and get into the Bit Busters club and um, ‘integrate technologies’ with her (words on the advert, not mine). The game is a vast (I play the first 10 levels here) and of varying difficulty. It has a whole host of weird enemies, traps and pitfalls try to prevent you from reaching your goal at every turn.

Using your wits and cunning you must navigate Chip safely to each level exit by solving puzzles and in most cases collecting a number of chips along the way. You’ll need to use objects such as handy keys (blue, yellow, green and red) as well as shields to protect you from fire and water, boots to help you navigate ice, and a magnet to help you move about on what I’ve always thought was a demented escalator.

Anyways, have a watch of the video below and let me know your thoughts and memories about Chips Challenge!